The Samuel Neaman Insitiute will research the potential for increasing, expanding and improving mathematics and physics education in the Haredi community
The Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox Jewish) community is a minority group in Israel with unique characteristics. Secluding themselves from modern society by choice, the Haredim have traditionally tended not to pursue careers in favor of religious study and thus maintain basic living standards, relying mostly on government subsidies. By holding strong positions in a coalition-based political system, they are exempted from army service and are allowed to operate an independent education system, fully funded by the government yet not supervised by it.
The high rates of natural growth in the Haredi community have led the government in recent years to try out different carrot and stick policies, all geared towards integrating the Haredim into the mainstream job market and the IDF. As Minister of Finance in the early 2000’s, Benjamin Netanyahu significantly reduced the subsidies, and as a result, more Haredi women entered the work force. JDC-Israel created job training programs (Tevet) and the IDF opened special tracks for Haredi soldiers. Last year, the Ministry of Education opened a Haredi district, which provides incentives to Haredi schools that choose to operate under its auspices.
In addition, there are some promising signs regarding the foundation’s target for advanced mathematics and the sciences. Until ten years ago, Haredi high-school students were not examined in the national mathematics matriculation at all. Over the last decade, there has been a growing trend for schools to teach 3, and then 4-unit mathematics. By 2015, the Haredi district reports that 50 schools are offering 4-unit matriculation and 25 schools have even started to teach the 5-unit level (11 of which via the Virtual High School). These are, however, very early days of a highly sensitive process. It is still unclear what the prospects are for scaling up to larger numbers and whether the community and its leaders will allow for it to continue.
At this point, we believe it is important for us to become more knowledgeable about the potential and the hurdles for pushing our agenda in the Haredi community. Therefore, we approached the Samuel Neaman Institute (SNI) at the Technion to conduct a study on the topic. SNI has been researching the integration of Ultra-orthodox into mainstream society for several years and has good contacts within the community. The study will be led by Dr. Reuven Gal, formerly head of the Administration for National Civic Service for Haredim and head of “Shiluv” project at SNI, with two other researchers, one of whom- Yehuda Morgenstern – is from the Haredi sector.
The study will begin with the accumulating and mapping of population data as well as quantitative indicators and a forecast of the Haredi school system. It will include information about students, their learning tracks (emphasizing the group who take the 5-unit exam in mathematics and the sciences), the different school systems, the curriculum and the teachers. Qualitative analysis will then shed light on these measures and will focus on the considerations of students, teachers, parents and schools when deciding whether to offer and to choose five unit tracks. It will investigate the obstacles they faced in making this choice and the reactions they received from their surroundings.
The study will include interviews with education and opinion leaders as well as documenting seven “success stories” of five-unit graduates. A “think tank” committee will meet three times over the course of the study to examine the findings, generate insights, formulate conclusions, and recommend possible courses of action in order to increase, expand and improve mathematics and physics education in the Haredi community. Dr. Gal will write the final report and recommendations, which will be open to the public and will also be presented to the Advisory Council in November 2016.